Wednesday March 21, 2012Gators Bracing for Physical Marquette Squad with Elite Eight Berth on the Line (10:17 p.m. ET, TBS)

During
Florida’s practice Tuesday at Arizona State, the coaches came up with a drill
like none other they’d rolled out this season. Four players from the Gators’
regular rotation would match up against a combination of four other players,
plus two walk-ons parked stationary on the wings.

After a
few seconds of passing and setting screens in 4-on-4 action, a coach would
throw up an intentional miss and the four players on offense attacked the glass
-- plus the two wings -- and tried to out-wrestle the quartet of defenders for
the rebound.

Coach
Billy Donovan and his staff were trying to make a point. When the
seventh-seeded Gators (25-10) clash with third-seeded and 11th-ranked Marquette
(27-7) in Thursday night’s NCAA West Region semifinals at USAirways Center,
it’s going to feel at times like six guys are on the court.

And to
further hammer home that point, Donovan ordered his scout team to hammer on the
Florida regulars like at no other time all season.

“We’ve
had physical practices over the years, so we’re used to those,” junior guard Kenny
Boynton said. “It’s not like we’re a soft team or anything like that ...
.”

He
paused. Then nodded his head.

“They
beat us up, man,” Boynton said. “I got frustrated. I wanted to run a couple of
them over.”

That was
the whole point. Stocky Lex Edwards, walk-on from Orlando, made like 6-foot-2,
215-pound Golden Eagles guard Darius Johnson-Odom and banged Boynton around. A
bunch. Eric Storts, out of Tampa, reached, poked prodded and pushed. Jacob
Kurtz, who’s actually seen some late-game playing time this season, made a
nuisance of himself, also.

“We want
them to have an accurate look,” Edwards said. “So whether it’s slapping at the
ball or slapping at their arms, fouling, pushing, whatever it took, we’re going
to do what we had to do to get them ready.”

And
there was 6-10 Walter Pitchford, the scholarship center from Michigan, assigned
to play the role of Big East Player of the Year Jae Crowder. What he did,
basically, was make everyone mad, even drawing the ire of 5-8 senior point
guard Erving Walker with a few less-than-gentle nudges around the bucket.

Words
were exchanged. Glances, too.

“Get
used to it!” Donovan screamed. “That’s what you’re getting for 40
minutes.”

Think
Florida likes chaos? Just wait ‘till the Gators get a load of the Golden
Eagles.

Marquette,
coached by Buzz Williams, led the Big East in scoring at 75.9 points per game
and ranked third in field-goal percentage at 45.7. The Eagles will collapse and
harass and beat up on opponents to the point of utter aggravation -- and so
much that officials can’t possibly call every foul committed.

They’ll
run and press, too. A lot. Hence their high amount of points, as well as
assists (league-leading 16.7 per game) and steals (8.7 per game).

“The
game is going to be played at a very fast pace,” Donovan said.

The
Gators are fine with an up-tempo game. They love it. The question is how are
they going to react when the game inevitably becomes overly physical?

In
Sunday’s 84-50 destruction of Norfolk State in the regional second-rounder at
Omaha, Neb., things started to get a little chippy after the Spartans, down by 30,
began taking a few swipes here and there in an effort to salvage some
pride.

Walker
complained to the officials. Boynton got a technical for slapping a player in
the head. Freshman guard Bradley Beal, usually even-keeled, had to be
restrained by teammates after a bump under the basket.

Donovan
showed his players tape of those very instances this week and basically told
them to expect more of the same against Marquette -- times 10.

“If you
get hurt, you have to act like you aren’t,” sophomore center Patric Young said.
“Have to fight through it.”

The
Eagles already have tipped their hand regarding what they think of the Gators.
Crowder told reporters in Milwaukee earlier this week that Florida “lacks a few
things defensively.” He praised UF’s full-court pressure, but added, “if we
handle that we’ll get a lot of what we want offensively.”

Bang.

“This is
probably the most physical team we’re going to play,” Beal said.

Which
was why another drill the coaches came up with had assistant Norm Roberts,
charged with the scout for the game, tossing the ball to one of two players in
a 2-on-1 situation in the paint, and had them attack the rim against that lone
defender who was under orders to make the guy earn the basket.

“Seek
contact!” Donovan shouted.

Might as
well.

Playing
Marquette means contact will find you, anyway.

“You’ve
got to play through it and understand when it’s such a physical game and so
many bodies are hitting each other and guys are smacking at the ball, the
officials can’t call everything,” Roberts said. “This will not be a game of
first and second effort, but one of third and fourth effort. That’s what they
do. They keep going and going and win the effort plays.”

UF’s
first-round game against Virginia was supposed to be a test of wills; Florida’s
fast pace against UVa’s disciplined half-court sets. The Gators aced that one
by 25 points.

Marquette
will be a test of wills, too. But more a test of who’s willing to be the
tougher team; the one that won’t back down.

“It will
be a real physical game,” Walker said. “I don’t know if that’s much fun.”

Need to
know: The Gators are in the Sweet 16 for the sixth time in school
history and as a lower seed for just the third time. UF comes in as the No. 7
seed in the NCAA West Region, with Marquette, the runner-up to Syracuse in the
Big East Conference, as the No. 3 seed. ... Florida defeated 10th-seeded
Virginia 71-45 and 15th-seeded Norfolk State 85-50 to get here. ... UF coach
Billy Donovan is 27-9 in NCAA play, including a 7-2 record in the Sweet 16. The
only time Donovan’s teams have been eliminated in the Round of 16 came on this
very floor in 1999 when Gonzaga, the No. 10-seed, upset the Gators 73-72 at
what was then called America West Arena. ... The Golden Eagles beat 12-seed
Brigham Young 88-68 and 6-seed Murray State 62-53 to advance. ... They are in
the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight year, but in the Sweet 16 for a
second straight season for the first time since ’76-77. They won the national
championship in ’77, beating North Carolina in the title game, while coached by
Al McGuire. ... All five Florida starters are averaging in double-figures, led
by junior G Kenny Boynton (16.1 ppg), who is coming off his first scoring
output of at least 20 points in eight games. ... All-Southeastern Conference
freshman G Bradley Beal (14.6 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and senior PG Erving Walker (12.1
ppg, 4.6 apg) round out a backcourt that helped make the Gators one of the
nation’s highest-scoring (76.3 ppg) and best 3-point shooting teams (38.3
percent) in the country. Regarding the latter, 6-10 F Erik Murphy (10.5 ppg,
4.3 rpg, 43.1 percent from the arc) will be key in stretching Marquette’s
defense, but UF will need Murphy to account for some more boards and help C
Patric Young (10.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg) down low. ... Marquette led the Big East in
scoring (75.9 percent), was third in shooting percentage (45.7) and second in
free-throw percentage (72.2). Both senior 6-6 F Jae Crowder (17.6 ppg, 50.4
percent, 8.4 rpg, 2.5 spg) and 6-2 senior G Darius Johnson-Odom (18.5 ppg) were
named first-team all-conference, with Crowder -- who Donovan called a “Will
Yeguete with a really good offensive game” -- garnering Big East Player of the
Year honors. ... Marquette started the season with 10 straight wins, including
a big one at Wisconsin, with its lone out-of-conference defeat of the season
coming Dec. 19 at LSU. As one UF staff member put it, “Unlike us, they didn’t
have any bad losses.”